Former president Donald Trump has officially confirmed that he will be campaigning against Lisa Murkowski, the GOP senator from Alaska, who is up for midterm elections in 2022. He said that he would travel to Alaska to campaign against her.
As per a statement received by POLITICO from Trump on Saturday, he said that he will not be endorsing Lisa Murkowski. He called her a failed candidate from the great state of Alaska. He said that she had badly represented her state and had done a worse job for her country. He said that he didn’t know where other people would be the following year, but he would be in Alaska, “campaigning against a disloyal and very bad Senator.”
Murkowski has been a senator from Alaska since 2002. She has criticized Trump in the past as well and was the only one among the seven who voted for his conviction in last month’s impeachment trial to face reelection in 2022.
Trump statement follows another decision of hers which Trump considers controversial. As a member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee she advanced the nomination of Rep. Deb Haaland who is a Democrat from New Mexico, for the post of interior secretary. She was the only Republican to do so. She did say that she “struggled” to nominate Haaland.
In an additional step to unseat Murkowski, Trump’s political team has commissioned a poll on her. The survey, conducted between January 30 and February 1 gave her a 43% favorable rating though Trump polled higher at 53%. The survey, conducted by McLaughlin and Associates the firm that had worked on the 2016 and 2020 Trump campaign, was paid for by Save America, which is Trump’s leadership PAC.
Trump and Murkowski have also had issues in the past. She opposed Trump’s decision to fill in the place vacated by the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg, so close to the elections. She did not vote for Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
Unseating Murkowski will be difficult, but she also acknowledges that her actions and her impeachment vote could lead to political fallout. She said that she totally understands that but she also said, “I can’t be afraid of that.”
